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4th June 1924

For the Information of MR. O. S. Finnie.

STATEMENT AS TO THE CAUSES THAT LED UP TO THE CREATION OF THE WOOD BUFFALO PARK.

Prior to the creation of the Parks Branch, in 1911, the wood-bison were under the administration of the Forestry Branch, which Branch had taken this work over from the Police. After the creation of the Parks Branch, matters concerning the wood-bison were more and more referred to its Animal Division, until in 1917, the Government Agent at Fort Smith was instructed to report direct to the Parks Branch, and entire administration of the wood-bison was transferred to Mr. Harkin. While the Police administered the buffalo range, frequent patrols were made through the southern range, and a few Indians and half-breeds were encouraged to kill wolves.

On the Forestry taking over the work, a young biological student, Malloy, was sent there together with an elderly trapper from Ontario. The former made some excellent reports, with sketch maps, of portions of the southern range, but through ill-health, was prevented from accomplishing what he desired. The Ontario trapper, though given carte blanche to use poison and any other methods, did not succeed in securing, according to reports, a single wolf.

In 1914, as the then Chief of the Animal Division, I collected all possible data to be procured at that time, from the Police, the Forestry Branch, Ernest T. Seton, and other sources. As a result of the representations thus made, a memorandum to Council, dated June 30th, 1914, was drafted by the undersigned with the approval of the Deputy Minister on September the 14th, 1914, the Acting Deputy Minister requested the Superintendent General of Indian Affairs to “kindly facilitate the efforts now being made by the Dominion Parks Branch to carry out the Minister’s wishes”. Those wishes being to create the area, described in the draft memorandum to Council of June 30th, 1914, a Dominion Park.

The letter went on to state that “a full and adequate description of the boundaries of such a Park has since been obtained from the Surveyor General”.

And the letter concluded by suggesting that on his return to Ottawa, Inspector Conroy of the Indian Affairs Department, should meet the undersigned and Mr. Harkin and discuss the whole matter as it affected the Indians.

The Supt. General in his reply to the Acting Deputy Minister, stated that he would be “very glad to co-operate in any way in carrying out the Minister’s wishes as outlined in this communication”.

However, at the subsequent meeting with Mr. Conroy, strenuous opposition to creating the wood-bison’s habitat a park was met with, because a few Indians hunted and trapped there. My. Conroy suggested that if we desired to protect the buffalo, they might be driven out of their present habitat and covered elsewhere, and he made the claim that “there are numerous wolves which would become a serious menace to the larger game if the Indians were not allowed to enter the tract for the purpose of hunting”.

You will thus note that the first effort, and one that would have succeeded if objection had not been raised by the Indian Affairs Department, to create a National Park of the wood-bison’s habitat, was that recorded above.

On April 19th, 1916, the undersigned prepared a memorandum (see file 349), setting forth the following facts regarding the area inhabited by the wood-bison:

“I beg to submit that sufficient time has now elapsed to allow very full enquiries and consideration to be made on, and given to, the several points realised by the Indian Affairs Department and on other points germane to the whole question. Summarizing these:

1. This Branch possesses in its records proof of the continued occupation by the bison of their present habitat near Fort Smith, for a period going back one hundred years.
2. The area in question contains approximately some 9,000 square miles, or an area about the same as that of the old Rocky Mountains Park.
3. The area contains wooded tracts with dense undergrowth, interspersed with park-like meadows, and again diversified with muskeg. It is well watered with several springs, small lakes and rivers, and undoubtedly could, under proper supervision, be made, just as has Algonquin Park, a most successful breeding area for valuable fur-bearers, as well as a sanctuary for the bison, moose, caribou and other forms of beneficent animal life.”

In passing, I may state that my then expressed opinion is only the more confirmed since my visit of inspection to the area in 1922.

“(4) A careful perusal and search of records, from the offices of the R.N.W.M.Police, the Indian Affairs Department, and our own records, conclusively prove the following facts to be uncontestable:

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5. That only a few Indians regularly hunt through the habitat of the bison.
6. That these Indians do not possess any special rights entitling them by treaty to hunt through that territory
7. That, from time to time, on the evidence of Indian Affairs officials themselves, considerable reason exists to give ground for the many reports from other sources that the Indians occasionally do kill the buffalo.
8. That great difficulty has been met with in inducing the Indians to kill the wolves, these persons firmly believing that to do so brings bad luck.”

The undersigned then went on to state the authorities who were on record as approving of his recommendations, viz., “Experts in the Geological Survey such as Macoun, Camsell, and Taverner: by the Conservation Commission through its Secretary, and by a resolution passed at the last meeting of that body. In the United States by W. T. Hornaday and E. T. Seton”.

You will note that Mr. Kitto’s name was not mentioned for the reason that the above quoted report was written in April, 1916, and Mr. Kitto did not visit Fort Smith till the Spring of 1920.

Continuing to quote from the report prepared by the undersigned in 1916. “Doctor Hornaday is of the opinion, in which this Branch concurs, that steps cannot be taken too soon to ensure the successful carrying out of the carefully prepared plans made by this Branch for the preservation of the beneficent animal life above referred to, and the Conservation Commission, as before stated, also concurs, as well as all other authorities on these subjects whose opinion has been asked for”.

The following paragraph was approved by both the Deputy Minister and the Minister:

“Further, an Order-in-Council, dated June 30th, 1914, setting aside the area in question as a Dominion Park, has all this time been awaiting submittal to Council and the time has now arrived when definite and adequate steps should be taken to carry out the wishes of leading authorities everywhere on the conservation of game and fur-bearers, or else it is feared that action may be taken too late.”

The following outstanding recommendations were made and approved in the above report:

• That Mr. Henry J. Bury, Inspector in the Indian Affairs Department, be authorized to obtain waivers from the few Indians who hunt in the bison area as to their fancied rights therein and to take up the question of compensation for such waivers.

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Through omission on the part of the Indian Affairs Department to acquaint Mr. Bury with the wishes of the Department regarding this matter, it was later learned that he never received such instructions.

The report of April 18th, 1916, closed as follows:

“As the Indians, with few exceptions, will not hunt, trap, or kill the wolves, this Branch is fully prepared to make suggestions that will not necessitate the employment of many trappers (wolfers) in the area under discussion, but by the employment of a few skilled wolfers, whether Indians, half-breeds, or whites, and by up-to-date methods, should ensure if not the extermination, at least a considerable reduction in the numbers of these noxious and dangerous animals”.

On July 3rd, 1916, the undersigned prepared a memorandum to Council, approved by the Department of Justice, creating the area described by the Surveyor General a Dominion Park and “to be knowns as the Caribou Mountains Park” to be “subject only to such regulations as may be specifically applied thereto by the Governor General In Council”.

The above proposed memorandum to Council was taken by Mr. Harkin to the Minister at Banff. (See 3910, formerly 577634, both closed).

The drafting of this memorandum was, I think, the last official act of mine with relation to the wood-bison until in January, 1922, I was transferred to your Branch. In 1916, I enlisted and was sent to the Cobalt and Porcupine Districts on recruiting work. After nearly a year’s absence, I returned to the Parks Branch to find that, doubtless owing to the growth of the parks, I was restricted to parks work only in connection with wild life.

An hiatus, extending from April 18th, 1916, to January 3rd, 1921, occurs on file 349 (closed) and on the latter date I find you wrote to Mr. F. H. Kitto referring to his suggestion that a park be established for the purpose of preserving the wood-buffalo. You stated “Has this matter been taken up with the Commissioner and with the Parks Branch. If not I will draw their attention to your recommendation at once”.

This letter may have given Mr. Kitto the impression, to start with, that it was on his recommendation that the park was ultimately created.

To your letter, Mr. Kitto replied on January 4th, 1921, that the matter had already been taken up with Mr. Harkin and that he (Mr. Kitto) was most “anxious that a reserve should be made immediately”.

Under the date of January 14th, 1921, you addressed the Deputy Minister, stating that “Mr. Kitto, in his recent report, makes a suggestion that a buffalo or game reserve be established between Peace River and Great Slave Lake” and you requested Mr. Cory to tell you “if it has been decided to establish this park?”

On the matter being referred to Mr. Harkin, I find he stated that “this matter has been under consideration for some time” and that “the last definite action in this connection was the recommendation from the Advisory Board on Wild Life Protection to withhold from disposal or entry, except by Order-in-Council, any portion of the Wood-Buffalo area lying between the Peace River on the south, and latitude 60 05’ N. on the north, and between the meridian of 113 30’ west longitude on the west, and Slave River on the east”.

It is to be noted that when in February 1921, Mr. Harkin wrote the above quoted memorandum, he advises that no further action be taken until further definite information as to boundaries has been secured.

Finally, after further correspondence between yourself and Mr. Harkin, you recommended the following recommendations of Mr. Kitto’s, dated March 2nd, 1921:

• “(a) That reservations be confined to Alberta
  1. That further reservations north of parallel 60 be undertaken “by this Branch”.
  2. That during the coming season an investigation of the northern land be made, and that “upon the completion of this investigation, this Branch would then be in a position to recommend a definite in Mackenzie District on a separate basis from that proposed in Alberta”.

These recommendations were approved by the Deputy Minister.

And, incidentally, such approval covers Mr. Harkin’s recommendation to reserve from sale or other disposal the lands in which the wood-bison roam, within Alberta, the date of approval being March 2nd, 1921, on file 349.

You will observe that the recommendation of Mr. Kitto, approved on March 2nd, 1921, was not that a park be created, but only that the bison habitat in Alberta be set aside from sale or other disposal, and that investigation be made of the bison habitat in the North West Territories.

On April 12th, 1921, a meeting of the Advisory Board on Wild Life Protection was held, at which Mr. Gerald Card, Indian Agent at Fort Smith, and Mr. F. H. Kitto were present. The stenographic notes of that meeting take up some twenty-eight closely typewritten pages, mostly devoted to examination of Messrs. Card and Kitto, re pasture, number of buffalo, topographical features, and other discursive and desultory matter. On page 24, Mr. Harkin requests Mr. Card to “study up the question” (of making a reserve or sanctuary) and “as to what would be suitable boundaries”.

1. Harkin asked Mr. Kitto if he could visit the Caribou Mountains that season with a view to their inclusion, or a portion, in the sanctuary, and Mr. Kitto replied “I might make it”. No resolution was put or passed.

On file 2742, I find that Doctor E. W. Nelson in January, 1920, strongly recommended the wood-bison habitat being set aside as a wild life sanctuary, and copies of his letter were sent to Mr. James White, Doctor C. Gordon Hewitt, Doctor R. M. Anderson, and Mr. D. C. Scott.

Reverting to previous efforts to create the wood-bison area a park, I find that on July 28th, 1916, I made a memorandum (see file 3911-2) to Mr. Chisholm, Department of Justice to the following effect.

That Mr. Harkin had taken with him to the West a draft memorandum to Council, dated July 3rd, 1916, in order to submit it to the Minister, then at Banff. That Mr. Harkin had returned the papers, after presumably discussing the matter with the Ministers, with the following request:

“Ascertain whether Administrator (Commissioner) of the N.W.T. has any general authority under which he can make any regulations which would serve to protect buffalo”.

I pointed out to Mr. Chisholm that under the North West Territories Act, the Commissioner appeared to have the same powers verst in him as did the Lieutenant Governor of the N.W.T. in 1905.

To which both Mr. Chisholm and the Deputy Minister of Justice replied at that time

• 1st The Commissioner of the N.W.T. has no authority to make regulations re game in the N.W.T.
• 2nd There is considerable doubt as to whether the Governor General in Council has any authority to regulate game matters.
• 3rd That the Act should be amended before trying to pass any regulations.

Therefore, Mr. Harkin was advised to endeavour to at one create the bison’s habitat a park as proposed in the memorandum to the Deputy Minister of June 28th, 1916, and June 30th, 1914.

The only reply, at the time, from Mr. Harkin was “Matter has to stand”.

During September, 1916, Doctor Charles Camsell inspected the wood-bison range, and I think you will agree with me that his report has largely strengthened the hands of those who finally succeeded in having the area in question created a park.

On May 8th, 1922, the Deputy Minister issued the following instructions:

That Mr. F. V. Seibert, D.L.S., explore the area west of Slave River in the Province of Alberta and the district of Mackenzie with a view to final determination of the boundaries of the proposed park and that the undersigned be attached to the party and be provided with “every possible facility” for carrying out a thorough investigation.

It only remains to be added that as the result of this expedition, and shortly after the return of Mr. Seibert and the undersigned, the entire habitat of the wood-bison, together with a portion of the Caribou Mountains, the habitat of a race of wood-caribou, about which zoologically very little is known, was created a Dominion Park in the administration of the N.W.T. Branch. (See P.C. 2498, December 18th, 1922).

The above information has been collected by the undersigned from the following closed files: 349, 3910 No. 1, 3910 No. 2, 3910 No. 3, 3747, 2742, 3911 No. 1, 3911 No. 2, 3912, 1 U.A.1.1., 2764.

Maxwell Graham

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